Tom the Exterminator on the Middle East

Miles Jackson cqmv at pdx.edu
Fri Apr 5 08:44:25 PST 2002


On Thu, 4 Apr 2002, Naji Dahi wrote:


> Unfortuantely in social science you cannot prove causation, you can only
> show correlation. The "scientific" methods in social science is, for the
> most, part based on correlation in social science.

This is a bizarre statement. Fields like cognitive psychology rely primarily on experimentation, and fields like astronomy rely on nonexperimental (correlational) research. And by the way, scientific studies cannot prove causation (remember the fallacy of affirming the consequent?).

Miles



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